Considering a set of travel gear

[ams511]

I did not know Apeks produced regulators for other companies.

They did before the Aqualung buyout. Zeagle and some Beuchats were made by Apeks.

 

[Dave616]

I've seen woven travel backplates from OxyCheq or ScubaPro. I wonder if folks have experience building a travel rig up from one of these.

I do. I have an Oxycheq Travel (Fabric) Plate set up with their 18lb. Mach V Extreme Wing, Oxy HOG harness, and Dive Rite SS tank bands. Very comfortable rig; no crotch strap needed. I use a 5" loop of 1/4" diameter bungee cord on the top of the plate to hang it over the tank valve. The loop makes it very easy to strap the tank down.
It's been to the Caribbean multiple times, and going back this Feb.

 

[tracydr]

A sidemount rig would work well for both. You can single tank sidemount dive when traveling,with the option of double tank diving anytime.

 

[halocline]

I'm considering buying a set of travel gear. I'm also considering buying tech gear. It's clear from looking at online shops that it's possible to do both at once, but I wonder if it will end up being practical. Am I going to end up duplicating almost everything anyway and then have my rig still be heavier than a recreational travel bcd?

I believe that you should buy the dive gear that you want to dive with, and forget about this whole "travel gear" concept. That's more about selling existing divers new and un-necessary gear than anything else IMO.

Buying versatile gear is usually not a mistake; but you really need to determine what you want to dive with, then just make it work with the baggage situation. People make WAY too big a deal out of carrying dive gear on a plane IMO; you're barely carrying the bag and you have 50 lbs of weight free on most flights; that's a lot. I typically travel to MX with 2 complete reg sets (one yoke for single, a pair of DIN for doubles), 2 wings, 2 wetsuits, a backplate, 2 masks, lights, etc....and I've never once gone over the limit. I use a lightweight duffle and pad the gear with the wetsuits and my clothes.

With regards to technical dive gear, the first step will definitely be some training, and then you'll have a much better idea of what gear you need to buy and bring. The big differences start to appear when you are using double tanks.

A really nice single tank BC would be a rigid plate (either steel or AL depending on your ballast needs) and a small single tank wing from either oxycheq, deep sea supply, halcyon, dive rite, or others. Get a standard webbing hogarthian harness with 3 or 4 D rings. You can use this with singles, doubles (with a bigger wing) in warm or cold water, again depending on your ballast. You never hear of anyone regretting buying a standard metal plate/harness set up.

 

[TSandM]

I just got home from a trip to Maui. I took my DSS Kydex backplate and TT17 wing, and had a ball diving a single Al80.

The Kydex backplate is also what I use when I cave dive in Mexico. Unfortunately, wings that will serve for single and double tanks are always bad compromises, so I do own a separate wing for doing that. At home, where I dive steel doubles, I use an aluminum backplate, so that I can move as much weight low as I can, to balance the head-heavy tanks. I could easily use the Kydex plate for this, except that I am very lazy, and do not want to adjust the harness from the thin exposure protection in the tropics to the heavy insulation of Puget Sound.

The shortest fins I know that are good for scuba diving are the smaller sized Jet fins, but they are heavy to pack or carry on.

 

[Nemrod]

I do. I have an Oxycheq Travel (Fabric) Plate set up with their 18lb. Mach V Extreme Wing, Oxy HOG harness, and Dive Rite SS tank bands. Very comfortable rig; no crotch strap needed. I use a 5" loop of 1/4" diameter bungee cord on the top of the plate to hang it over the tank valve. The loop makes it very easy to strap the tank down.
It's been to the Caribbean multiple times, and going back this Feb.

I bought the Oxy travel soft plate, the fabric plate, when it first came out. I have tons of dives on it and I have enjoyed using it.

Okay, here is the thing, I was told by parties involved that the Oxy 18 and the soft travel plate were intended for aluminum 63/80 tanks. If you put tanks that are quite negative on it they will tend to roll to one side because there is no structure in the plate to stabilize them unlike with a hard plate. Aluminum tanks spend much of the dive neutral or slightly positive. This therefore does not cause the tank to attempt to roll off your back.

Now, I have used steel 72s (old type, light and fairly neutral), my favorite the aluminum 63 and aluminum 80s and some of the newer steels that are not like having a tungsten ingot on my back and the rig does fine. Since, I weight for no-BC and since I use my lungs as my BC and since my goal is to not put any air in the wing (maybe on the surface waiting for the boat a little puff) the wing is never inflated or taco-ed enough to assist stabilizing the tank on the soft plate.

The Oxy Mach V and soft travel plate were intended for tropical and warm water diving or diving up to perhaps a 3/2 full suit. Beyond that it does not make sense to me because I would want to have a heavier plate and a negative tank so as not to have to festoon my self with weight pockets for all the lead.

I do not agree that "travel gear" is a gimmick. There is a real need for travel gear that is light, compact and functional, simple and reliable. Most divers who travel usually travel to nice, warm, pretty places with friendly people and pretty fishes and warm, clear water. Very few jump on an airplane in November and head to Maine for a vacation of diving or to Puke-it Sound. So, of course the travel equipment is not full use/general use and not intended for tech diving pushing doubles and a video housing under the arctic ice cap.

Everything has a limitation. You do not always need to drop a bomb when (behind the scenes) sweet nothings can be whispered in the ear. This idea of always using the same rig and equipment and thusly hauling a full tech rig to Cozumel or Caymans for a pretty fish dive, it just does not make sense and they are not likely to have the tanks to support it when you get there. And you might be thought weird.

And, I am tired of the airlines gouging me for extra bags and overweight bags X 2 since it is me and my wife, X 2 since it happens both ways, X every trip we take / by our income = no money to buy the nieces and nephews cheap Chinese junk for Christmas.

N

 

[Corleone]

with most airlines you would get between 20~23 kg ( 44 ~ 50 lb ) of allowed checked in bags. if you weight all your scuba gears i highly doubt that it will be over 10 kg. you still have another 10 kg ( 22 lb ) for cloths and other stuff. unless you are going for economy flight where weight is restrected to 7 kg (15 lb ) or you are talking about a carry-on bags.

i just came from a liveaboard about 2 ~ 3 weeks ago, and i found that about %50 of non-diving related stuff that i packed are not nessesary.

when doing liveaboard or dive camps, you need something that you are familiar with, things that you don't use often shouldn't be invited with you on this vocation.

with travel gear, you pay high price, you get equipment with basic features and comparing that to regular gear in terms of weight, its lighter by
0.25~0.5 kg ( 0.55~1 lb ).

when i was in red sea, all of the tanks where DIN, if you have a yoke reg, they would convert your tank from DIN to Yoke. on some of the sites, i saw people with double tanks, sidemount and rebreathers from different boats. a real diving distination should be able to serve all neads.

 

[ams511]

The Oxy Mach V and soft travel plate were intended for tropical and warm water diving or diving up to perhaps a 3/2 full suit. Beyond that it does not make sense to me because I would want to have a heavier plate and a negative tank so as not to have to festoon my self with weight pockets for all the lead.

Oxycheq wings come in 18, 30, and 40 lb lift varieties. It would be hard to call a wing with 40 lb lift tropical. The soft plate was designed for traveling where you want the least weight and bulk. If you do not need to travel or are not weight constrained I am sure they would recommend a steel or aluminum plate.

 

[ronscuba]

Most wheeled suitcases weigh 10 lbs or more.

I get close to the 50 lb checked bag limit pretty fast.

Lightweight wheel less duffle bags would be an option if I was traveling alone, but no way my wife is carrying a 40 lb duffle bag and her carry-on bag.

 

[Nemrod]

Oxycheq wings come in 18, 30, and 40 lb lift varieties. It would be hard to call a wing with 40 lb lift tropical. The soft plate was designed for traveling where you want the least weight and bulk. If you do not need to travel or are not weight constrained I am sure they would recommend a steel or aluminum plate.

The topic is travel equipment. I am talking about the 18 and that is not relevant to the construction of the fabric travel plate. I am not making a complaint, only an observation of my use of this equipment for three years now. The fabric plate does not support negative tanks well, they will tend to twist the plate and roll off the back and flop side to side. It works very well and is sufficiently stable with relatively neutral tanks like the aluminum 63/80 and old steel 72LP. Which of course, as I said, was the design intention.

I get close to the 50 lb checked bag limit pretty fast.

Yeah, me too. Including the bag of course. My last trip my bag was at 35 pounds and my wife's at 32. That is down considerably from my past weights of 49ish. Then of course, the airlines were caught cheating the scales by five pounds recently. So, how did I get from about 49 pounds to 35 pounds.

Aeris Accel fins vs. Jets with spring straps = 3 plus pounds
Oxy Mach V 18 vs Oxy Mach V 30 = 1.0 pound (approx.)
Oxy Fabric plate vs Aluminm or steel tech plates = 3 to 5 pounds
Miflex hoses vs rubber = 1.0 pound
smaller spg, frameless masks = .5 pounds
Intova 220 lumen light instead of can light = 5 pounds
_________________________________________________
total = 13.5 to 15.5 pounds

49 - 35 = 14 pounds

I have not really given any capability up. A can light is overkill for night diving, the Accel fins do just fine, the Oxy soft travel plate with Mach V 18 is great, the Miflex hoses, I sort of like them, the spg and masks are actually superior to what the larger spg and framed masks I had before. Every little bit counts and it adds up.


N